Bates College has recently appointed two faculty members to four-year term professorships, President Elaine Tuttle Hansen announced. Professor of History Michael Jones has been named the new Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Professor of Sociology Emily Kane has been named Whitehouse Professor.

An expert in the history of the North Atlantic region from late antiquity through the medieval period, Jones “exemplifies the strength and gains of crossing the traditional boundaries of disciplines,” Hansen said. Most recently, his work in the Shetland Islands extends his expertise into areas of archaeology and historical ecology and reflects his interest in bringing together faculty from many disciplines around topics involving Atlantic Studies. Jones has been at Bates since 1982. His courses span more than a dozen centuries of history and he was central to the founding of the Bates Program in Classical and Medieval Studies in 1988. Bates’ second Johnson Professor, Jones succeeds Jane Costlow, Professor of Russian.

Funded through a $1.2-million grant from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation of New York City, the Johnson Professorship recognizes the value of taking research and teaching wherever they lead – even if beyond the boundaries of established fields of study. Christian A. Johnson, a New York financier and industrialist who emigrated from Sweden, donated funds to incorporate the foundation in 1952. His devotion to education and nurturing the curiosity and intellectual development of young people continue to characterize the foundation, now headed by his daughter Julie Johnson Kidd.

The Whitehouse chair recognizes the characteristics that Bates has consistently valued, including dedication to educational and moral excellence and respect for human dignity. Kane’s work “evinces these aspects of scholarly endeavor as she seeks to examine issues of social inequality, the ideology of gender and family interactions,” said Hansen. Kane has been at Bates since 1996. Her courses range from examining race and class to teaching quantitative and qualitative research methods. Kane succeeds John Kelsey and Georgia Nigro, professors of psychology, to become the college’s third Whitehouse Professor.

The Whitehouse Professorship was established in 1985 with a gift to the endowment from David ’36 and Constance Whitehouse. Born and raised in Auburn, Whitehouse earned his M.B.A. from Harvard University after graduating from Bates in 1936. He served in leadership positions at the Container Corporation of America his entire career, retiring in 1980 as vice president. The Whitehouses passed away in the spring of 2000 and are survived by four adult children.

The Whitehouse Professorship at Bates was established in 1992 with a gift to the endowment by David C. Whitehouse, a 1936 graduate of Bates, and his wife, Constance, “for the advancement of that character which Bates has consistently exemplified, including a dedication to free enterprise, freedom of religion, educational and moral excellence, and a respect for human dignity.” Constance, a native of Auburn, died in March 2000. David, raised and educated in Auburn, died in early April 2000.

Joining Nigro in the roundtable discussion will be several of her former students who now counsel, teach and advocate for adolescents across the United States. Nancy Bullett, a 1996 graduate of Bates, has worked with the AIDS Coalition of Lewiston-Auburn and has been active in various activities designed to create safer schools for gay and lesbian youth.

Emily Cause, a 1997 graduate of Bates, earned a master’s degree in middle school education from Lesley College and works in the Department of Ethics at the Fieldston School in New York City. The school’s ethics department guides children into becoming principled and caring members of their communities.

Rebecca Colman, a 1993 Bates graduate, worked as a mental health counselor for three years before beginning graduate studies in developmental psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she is involved in projects related to adolescent sexual behavior, including a five-year evaluation of abstinence-education programs in the state of Georgia.

Emily Demong, a 1994 graduate of Bates, worked for Teach for America and the National Outdoor Leadership School before joining the Aspen Achievement Academy, which leads high-risk youth on wilderness experiences in the Utah outback.

Lisa Kociubes, a 1996 graduate of Bates, worked as a residential counselor in a Massachussets youth shelter for homeless and at-risk youth. She received her master’s degree in social work from Columbia University in 1999 and now works in the Juvenile Rights Division at the Legal Aid Society in New York City.

“The Whitehouse Professorship is an enduring and permanent symbol of the commitment to keep the finest teachers among us,” said Bates President Donald W. Harward of the Whitehouse endowment. Recipients of the Whitehouse award retain the professorship for a period of four years. Professor Nigro is the second recipient, the first being Professor John Kelsey, also of the Department of Psychology at Bates.

Nigro received the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching at Bates in 1989. She has been a member of the supervisory board for the Maine Court Appointed Special Advocate Program, serving abused children. She also has worked with local agencies on an HIV prevention project, developed a project to raise awareness about careers in math and science for middle school girls, helped to evaluate a sexual-abuse prevention program and assessed Lewiston 6th-grade students’ aspirations for the Lewiston Aspirations Partnership.

Nigro was named one of two 1998 recipients of the Maine Campus Compact (MCC) Faculty Service-Learning Award, one of the most prestigious awards for community service in the state of Maine. She has received the John W. Dallenbach Fellowship from Cornell University and a National Institute of Mental Health Fellowship. Nigro received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, her master’s degree from Yale University and her doctoral degree from Cornell University.

After graduating from Bates with a degree in economics, Whitehouse earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1938. He joined the Container Corporation of America in 1944, becoming general manager in Boston in 1958, west coast division general manager in 1963 and vice president in 1965. He managed the firm’s headquarters in Venezuela during the early 1970s and retired in 1980. Active in Bates affairs and particularly supportive of the college’s museum and its collections, he served as chairman of his class reunion gift committee and as a member of the College Key, an honorary service organization of Bates graduates.